Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium will soon release its first big report and is seeking an operations manager

After 18 months of planning, organization and “soul-searching,” the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium is days away from releasing its first major report on challenges facing the region.

Planners intend to release the report — called a “platform” — at the consortium’s meeting Tuesday in Youngstown.

The report will be the first concrete outcome from the three-year project, funded by $4.3 million from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“It’s not the answer to what’s going on in Northeast Ohio, it’s the first step in framing the discussion,” said Jason Segedy, who chairs the non-profit consortium, and who also heads the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study.

The goal of NEOSCC is to plan a rational future for a sprawling, 12-county region in Northeast Ohio. The area has lost 7 percent of its population since 1970, while it has increased the area of developed land by 33 percent, or 400 square miles.

The result: fewer taxpayers are carrying more of a fiscal burden to pay for more infrastructure and local government payrolls.

Plus, jobs are located far from affordable housing and transportation depends primarily on cars, not transit, the pattern renders the region less economically competitive – and sustainable – than it might be otherwise.

As it gets ready to enter the next phase of its activities, the consortium, a broad alliance of local government, foundation and business leaders, is gearing up for action by seeking a new director of operations.

The creation of the position, which could be filled by an individual or an outside consultant, is an outcome of a recent re-evaluation of the consortium’s organization by Currere, a consulting firm.

The director of operations will will help the consortium deliver products and decision-making tools to Northeast Ohioans including:

— A regional dashboard. Indicators on everything from air quality to vehicle miles traveled to affordable housing would be posted and updated so residents across the region could see how political actions change the outcome. The region would be “wired” with a central nervous system to provide feedback.

— Pilot projects. The consortium would post updates on small-scale experimental projects that would demonstrate the feasibility of various approaches to sustainability across the region.

— Toolkit. Land use maps would help communities get the big picture on the regional context for local decisions. Other toolkits would show communities how to integrate land use and transportation planning.

— Policies. The consortium could provide examples of “form based zoning,” which is amenable to multi-use development. Or it could advocate that Northeast Ohio abandon adding new capacity to roadways and focus instead on maintaining what it already has.

Segedy said it’s the intention of the consortium to help communities plan for the future by providing graphic illustrations of the consequences of current zoning, which often encourages sprawl development.